The book was kind of bad but at least easy to get through being mostly a technical manual. The really bad parts were anything character related because dude can't write people 4 poo poo

You're telling me you didn't find the portrayal of bureaucratic management Nasa guy and nerdy-chic computer chick to be satisfactory?
(I'm right there with you, buddy.)
Book was good but Andy Weir has a long way to go.

The movie wasn't really on my radar (though I would have watched it anyways) but the kindle version of the book was on sale so I bought it on a whim and finished it in a couple days. Thoroughly enjoyed the book and was surprised that it was funnier than I expected after watching the trailers/promos for the movie. Much more excited for the movie now.

Quick book question:Was Hermes going to go to Mars regardless whether or not the probe resupply on the Earth flyby was successful? I thought if that failed the rescue mission would just be cancelled. What was the point of the plan where the rest of the crew would commit suicide leaving Johannsen (?) to survive?

Disco!?

hmmxkrazee fucked around with this message at Sep 1, 2015 around 21:26

Was Hermes going to go to Mars regardless whether or not the probe resupply on the Earth flyby was successful? I thought if that failed the rescue mission would just be cancelled. What was the point of the plan where the rest of the crew would commit suicide leaving Johannsen (?) to survive?

The book has been out for years, what are the rules here about spoiler tags? I'm pretty sure Hermes was on a trajectory to Mars anyways because of how the whole ion engine thing worked, that's why they were all going to down the cyanide pills and Johannsen was going to eat them

Quick book question:Was Hermes going to go to Mars regardless whether or not the probe resupply on the Earth flyby was successful? I thought if that failed the rescue mission would just be cancelled. What was the point of the plan where the rest of the crew would commit suicide leaving Johannsen (?) to survive?

Disco!?

The "mutiny" was that they turned the ship away from the nominal trajectory. Once they did that, they COULDN'T brake into Earth orbit anymore, they were committed to an Earth flyby on their way back to Mars, no matter what. They were forcing NASA's hand to either send them a resupply probe full of food or let them all die. NASA had previously rejected this rescue option, even though it had a better chance of rescuing Watney, because it risked six lives instead of one. But now they had no choice but to go along with it and send the resupply probe. And if the resupply fails, the astronauts all die.

Powered Descent fucked around with this message at Sep 2, 2015 around 02:45

Quick book question:Was Hermes going to go to Mars regardless whether or not the probe resupply on the Earth flyby was successful? I thought if that failed the rescue mission would just be cancelled. What was the point of the plan where the rest of the crew would commit suicide leaving Johannsen (?) to survive?

Disco!?

Keeping book spoilers under wrap until we learn the spoiler rules on the book.
The crew of Hermes committed to the Rich Purnell Maneuver months before even getting to Earth. Because the ion engines thrust so slowly, if the Hermes was going to stop at Earth it would usually have needed that much time just to slow down, decelerating the whole way. They sped up, instead, so by the time the resupply mission even launched the fastest way to stop at Earth really would have been via Mars no matter what.

One of the best aspects of the book is how, with a handful of notable exceptions, most of the science fully checks out.

IIRC Andy Weir was having trouble working out the path Hermes would have to take through the solar system due to the constant thrusting of the ion engines, so he actually wrote a program which simulated the physics of the entire trip.

Indeed! I recommend watching the interview he did with Adam Savage if you have not (in OP) which is like 98% spoiler free and just talks about the setting and a few situations where for a book he ignored the science in one or two places.

We should probably stick to spoilertags for the book though, if it is specific discussion.

IIRC Andy Weir was having trouble working out the path Hermes would have to take through the solar system due to the constant thrusting of the ion engines, so he actually wrote a program which simulated the physics of the entire trip.

I don't find the book to be boring at all really, I'm a little over halfway through it and it's generally a fun read.

He could have really used a co-writer to do the parts with emotion/squalor/etc.

Book probably could have been a big gently caress off literary phenomenon if there was some actual heart in the writing. Almost a shame but I mean I guess it's pretty successful at this point so whatever.

I enjoyed the hell out of the book too. You just have to keep in mind that it's a Man vs. Nature survival/adventure story, NOT a character drama. The characters are just deep enough to serve their purpose, and not a bit more. Not a single one of them (Watney included) has anything resembling a character arc (except MAYBE for what's-her-name who does the satellite imagery, who gets more confident as time goes by). Almost everyone maxes out at one or two character traits. (Watney is just about the only one who takes more than three or four words to sum up.)

But like I said, it's not supposed to be a character drama. If complex character interaction is what you like, you're going to be disappointed. But if you like creative solutions to plausible problems, you'll have a grand old time reading it.

Book chat Watney's nerd-speak made a lot of sense to me later in the book. Someone at NASA or on TV comments that he gets snarky in the face of danger and it's his way of responding to fear. He wasn't taking his situation lightly. He was scared shitless and probably expected to die alone, millions of miles from the nearest human on a desolate rock. It's a man v nature story of survival. I like the book so I'm excited to see the movie. Looks good so far.

it's that even in that situation a person of that intelligence/training/age would not be "snarking" like that. it's written like the person only knows how people talk from his favorite pop culture and/or net forums.

it's that even in that situation a person of that intelligence/training/age would not be "snarking" like that. it's written like the person only knows how people talk from his favorite pop culture and/or net forums.

Yes, the book would have been more enjoyable if he'd limited his log entries to a terse, professional listing of the events and never allowed his personality to show through.

you guys really don't understand when you link those things they sound like realistic people and not like the guy in the Martian. i don't even know why you folks keep linking them you're completely uncomprehending. i mean right there you didn't even grasp what i was saying is that even if i were to grant he's gonna be "snarky" it's that grown men don't sound like he does. the movie could be pretty good, Jaws is kind of a crappy book but ended up being an amazing movie.

how about you link them talking about the floating turd in another failed attempt at refuting me.

Groovelord Neato fucked around with this message at Sep 6, 2015 around 18:13

Um... how many of me do you think there are? How many times do you think "we" have linked those, here in this two-page thread?

But in any case, you're right, Watney does talk just like a present-day goony nerd. But he does so pretty realistically. (I work for a company whose name ends in dot-com, and Watney would fit in perfectly at the office.)

My favorite dialogue was when he had to strip some lander for parts and his log comment was "I totally raped that thing" - it really threw me out of the story.

Just did a search of the pdf of the book (albeit the version before he got it professionally edited) and the word raped doesn't appear once.

Do most people not realise that Watney isn't meant to be walking around throwing quips to himself 24 hours a day? Most of his time is spent doing boring rear end calculations, manual labor, and generally struggling to survive. His log entries are a few minutes a day where he gets a little bit of escapism, without any human contact they're one sided communication to an audience he in all likelyhood knows will probably only see it long after he's died.

The log isn't a scientific journal for engineers back on Earth, it's for Watney to blow off steam and temporarily pretend to himself that things are better than they are.

I read The Martian and Ready Player One back to back, so when a nerd writes a book, I've seen how it can go reasonably OK, and how it can fail horribly and make you feel like you need a shower after reading it.